Interactions with Politicans ?

[Calthrina950]

My grandmother’s sister once saw JFK in a phone booth in Charleston WV, 1960. He was itching himself , and had his hand down his pants.

bruh

Knowing how Kennedy was, are were sure that he wasn't with some woman? I have the book "Killing Kennedy", which was written by Bill O'Reilly, and it goes into great detail about Kennedy's affairs with women. It's astonishing how deferential the press used to be to Presidents, with regards to covering their personal lives. They hid Kennedy's affairs during his lifetime, just like they hid Franklin Roosevelt's polio during his lifetime.

Of course, I'm assuming Chairman Sanchez is being sarcastic here.

[WD]

My grandmother’s sister once saw JFK in a phone booth in Charleston WV, 1960. He was itching himself , and had his hand down his pants.

bruh

Knowing how Kennedy was, are were sure that he wasn't with some woman? I have the book "Killing Kennedy", which was written by Bill O'Reilly, and it goes into great detail about Kennedy's affairs with women. It's astonishing how deferential the press used to be to Presidents, with regards to covering their personal lives. They hid Kennedy's affairs during his lifetime, just like they hid Franklin Roosevelt's polio during his lifetime.

Of course, I'm assuming Chairman Sanchez is being sarcastic here.

Yeah, Kennedy’s personal life, atleast romantically, was quite sleazy, so something like that wouldn’t surprise me at all. The man was a good leader and a good president, and I certainly would have voted for him in 1960, but he definitely had a few skeletons in his closet.

[Del Tachi]

Don’t know how this slipped my mind earlier, but I attended a few dinner parties hosted by Secretary and Mrs. Kemp for young Republicans while I was a grad student at UGA.  Very nice people!

[Never Made it to Graceland]

Mike Huckabee
John McCain (and his wife/family)
Rick Santorum
John Fetterman

Only one of these men will be president.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Here's a good one - in 1980-1981ish, my Uncle, who was then 13-14, found A. James Manchin - the Secretary of State of West Virginia and the uncle of Senator Joe Manchin - passed out drunk in the dugout at his school's baseball field. IIRC, Manchin had earlier addressed the school on the dangers of drunk driving that same day.

As for me, I have plenty.

When I met Donald Trump, I yelled out to him "Mr. Trump, we're with you!" He turned around and said "I'm with you guys!" and kept walking down the ropeline.

Allen West has pointed me out during a speech, and gave me the nickname "Mad Max" when he was my Congressman, because I used to see him at a lot of events.

I hung out briefly with Roger Stone for a few minutes between radio broadcasts at the same event I met Trump at, and he was very, very, very nice. Extremely humble and seemed very much at ease.

Lindsey Graham was a total jerk. I met him the day as Trump and Stone at the Sunshine State Summit. I posted about it at the time, but basically he grunted when I asked for a picture, because it was such a chore to take a picture with me and the seven other people who stayed to hear him speak.

Kamala Harris showed up when I was voting last November. Like, I was in line and she literally showed up, got out of her car, walked right past me, shook some hands, and went on her way. I have the picture on my Instagram.

I talked to Ron Paul on C-SPAN's Washington Journal once. I was so nervous I could barely breathe, but I got through.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

My grandmother’s sister once saw JFK in a phone booth in Charleston WV, 1960. He was itching himself , and had his hand down his pants.

bruh

Knowing how Kennedy was, are were sure that he wasn't with some woman? I have the book "Killing Kennedy", which was written by Bill O'Reilly, and it goes into great detail about Kennedy's affairs with women. It's astonishing how deferential the press used to be to Presidents, with regards to covering their personal lives. They hid Kennedy's affairs during his lifetime, just like they hid Franklin Roosevelt's polio during his lifetime.

Of course, I'm assuming Chairman Sanchez is being sarcastic here.

I'm sure my grandma either sanitized it, or my great-aunt exaggerated it. All I know is that he was "itching" himself. Take that with your choice of how many grains of salt you want

[TheElectoralBoobyPrize]

The governor of Louisiana once sat right next to me in a dentist’s waiting room...if you want to know which one, I’ll just give the hint that he died very recently. He was the incumbent at the time it happened (though towards the end of his tenure). I chose not to speak to him.

My other interactions have either been at political events or at the airport.

[An American Tail: Fubart Goes West]

I tried to go to Gavin’s inauguration, but couldn’t get in. I just kinda walked around the capital and ultimately settled right at the intersection of the main hallways to see all of the pols on their way. I was on the northeast corner of the intersection when Nancy Pelosi and her entourage came by (on their way to the bathroom lol). I stuck my hand out a bit and she shook it. Couldn’t say anything other than “Congratulations” in my shyness and the fact that she was clearly in a hurry. I later heard from a guy that I had seen a few times around the Capitol earlier in the day that after I had shaken her hand and left that Secret Service (or whomever guards the Speaker) wasn’t happy that I had been able to shake her hand (as in it made it look like they didn’t have a handle on things).

[brucejoel99]

I tried to go to Gavin’s inauguration, but couldn’t get in. I just kinda walked around the capital and ultimately settled right at the intersection of the main hallways to see all of the pols on their way. I was on the northeast corner of the intersection when Nancy Pelosi and her entourage came by (on their way to the bathroom lol). I stuck my hand out a bit and she shook it. Couldn’t say anything other than “Congratulations” in my shyness and the fact that she was clearly in a hurry. I later heard from a guy that I had seen a few times around the Capitol earlier in the day that after I had shaken her hand and left that Secret Service (or whomever guards the Speaker) wasn’t happy that I had been able to shake her hand (as in it made it look like they didn’t have a handle on things).

Capitol Police! Despite the name, they have jurisdiction throughout the entire U.S.

[Never Made it to Graceland]

Here's a good one - in 1980-1981ish, my Uncle, who was then 13-14, found A. James Manchin - the Secretary of State of West Virginia and the uncle of Senator Joe Manchin - passed out drunk in the dugout at his school's baseball field. IIRC, Manchin had earlier addressed the school on the dangers of drunk driving that same day.

As for me, I have plenty.

When I met Donald Trump, I yelled out to him "Mr. Trump, we're with you!" He turned around and said "I'm with you guys!" and kept walking down the ropeline.

Allen West has pointed me out during a speech, and gave me the nickname "Mad Max" when he was my Congressman, because I used to see him at a lot of events.

I hung out briefly with Roger Stone for a few minutes between radio broadcasts at the same event I met Trump at, and he was very, very, very nice. Extremely humble and seemed very much at ease.

Lindsey Graham was a total jerk. I met him the day as Trump and Stone at the Sunshine State Summit. I posted about it at the time, but basically he grunted when I asked for a picture, because it was such a chore to take a picture with me and the seven other people who stayed to hear him speak.

Kamala Harris showed up when I was voting last November. Like, I was in line and she literally showed up, got out of her car, walked right past me, shook some hands, and went on her way. I have the picture on my Instagram.

I talked to Ron Paul on C-SPAN's Washington Journal once. I was so nervous I could barely breathe, but I got through.

My friend had a similar experience with Rick Santorum (separate from when I met him.) He really wanted to ask the then-presidential candidate something. So he ran down a hallway to ask the question, stopping him before he got on the elevator and was really animated above it. Afterwards he heard Santorum say to the people with him "boy, that guy has issues!" or something to that effect.

[Torrain]

I’ve met a couple of MPs, a handful of MSPs, and a Baroness who sits in the House of Lords (Sayeeda Warsi). Not many big names, only the backbenchers who could be bothered to come speak to groups of students in Glasgow.

A couple of fun exceptions though: I once attended a debate led by Former Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry. She was boisterous, and fun, but had no idea of the rules or structure of the debate. Kinda awkward in the end.

I once passed former Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell screaming about the establishment through a megaphone, in front of a picket line in Glasgow’s West End. He was standing on a traffic island, and cars had to honk and swerve to avoid clipping him. Reinforced my existing negative opinion of the man.

Former Liberal Democrat’s Party Leader Menzies Campbell, (now Lord Pittenweem) was my old MP, and I used to run into him at a local cafe with my parents, inside our town fishing museum. He’s a decent old chap, and basically saved our local arts festival at least once. (He also ripped our local SNP rep to shreds over Scottish independence in a debate held in my high school.)

One of my friends from uni ended up working in the press office for the Scottish Conservatives, and he once tried to get me to fill out the crowd for a Boris Johnson photo shoot, during a trip to Scotland for the 2019 election. As someone who was drifting left, and had to spend at least another year living with students in perhaps the least Tory-friendly city in the country, I politely declined.

Princess Anne once visited our village to open a refurbished museum (same one Campbell frequented), but I only saw the helicopter land (kinda messed up the local park for a while).

My father has better stories. He met the Queen while he was a Boy Scout (and suffering from terrible food poisoning). He also used grew up in Enoch Powell’s (who gave the highly racist Rivers of Blood speech - think Britain’s original anti-immigrant politician) constituency in Northern Ireland, and would run into him at the petrol (gas) station from time to time. He then moved to England, where he ended up living in Prime Minister John Major’s constituency. I was born during that time, making Major my first ever MP.

In terms of US politics, the best I can do is a US envoy to Scotland, who gave a speech to a model UN I participated in.

[An American Tail: Fubart Goes West]

I tried to go to Gavin’s inauguration, but couldn’t get in. I just kinda walked around the capital and ultimately settled right at the intersection of the main hallways to see all of the pols on their way. I was on the northeast corner of the intersection when Nancy Pelosi and her entourage came by (on their way to the bathroom lol). I stuck my hand out a bit and she shook it. Couldn’t say anything other than “Congratulations” in my shyness and the fact that she was clearly in a hurry. I later heard from a guy that I had seen a few times around the Capitol earlier in the day that after I had shaken her hand and left that Secret Service (or whomever guards the Speaker) wasn’t happy that I had been able to shake her hand (as in it made it look like they didn’t have a handle on things).

Capitol Police! Despite the name, they have jurisdiction throughout the entire U.S.

TIL! Thanks for sharing!!

[Alcibiades]

My local MP lived right across the road from us, so obviously I talked to him on quite a few occasions, and I once saw Philip Hammond standing on my street during a general election campaign, presumably helping said MP campaign.

[brucejoel99]

My local MP lived right across the road from us, so obviously I talked to him on quite a few occasions, and I once saw Philip Hammond standing on my street during a general election campaign, presumably helping said MP campaign.

I guess we know which party your local MP is a member of, then

[Secretary of State Liberal Hack]

Oh I remember another incident, we were on holiday in Langkawi sometime in 2015 when Malasiya 4th and 7th prime minister Mahathir walked in. My dad took a picture with him, which isn't great now that he's most famous being elected again at age 93, Anti-semitism and posting bullsh**t claiming Muslims have the right to kill millions of french people in the west.

[Lexii, harbinger of chaos and sexual anarchy]

I talked for quite some time with Pedro Pablo Kuczinsky (President of Peru 2016-18) during a lentil stew lunch / political debate organized by a relative of mine when I was 17, 6 years before him being elected.

[Skunk]

John Fetterman follows me on Twitter.

Lester Wolff follows me on Twitter.

Anyway, my other interactions with politicians include interning for Tim Walz, seeing a very sweaty Beto O'Rourke at a Tulsa rally, and getting my picture taken with Martin O'Malley who was at a fundraiser for a state Senate candidate during a special election. Said candidate won but later ended up losing re-election in a landslide this November and got charged with vehicular manslaughter.

[If my soul was made of stone]

Been in the same room as one of my state's Representatives and went to high school with the son of another, met a county judge when I was in line to vote for the first time. That's about it thus far.

[SingingAnalyst]

Not weird, but a few years ago I walked into a Biggby Coffee (an East Lansing, MI - based chain) in Clinton Township, MI and ran into Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI) and a few of his associates. I introduced myself.

Also, I met Ron Paul in 1988 at MIT when he was running as the Libertarian Nominee for President.

[diptheriadan]

ME: I met a few while early voting this year. Most were Democrats, i'm imaging because 1) Dem-aligned folks were more likely to early vote; 2) the one polling place open for the entire county was located in the inner city portion, so also the more Dem-aligned folks; and 3) Despite having a large city in the county, this is still deep red territory, so there's just not much incentive for a R to campaign that heavily.

MY COUSIN: Went to school with and is kinda sorta friends with (perhaps acquittances would work better here) the youngest person ever on the City Council. He was like 19 at the time and was appointed. He lost the actual election to some real estate guy.

MY MOM: My own experiences since she voted with me + whoever she met on her own the other times she's voted. She also used to date a drug dealer who allegedly had a photo of our used-to-be longtime mayor doing/buying coke that he used to get out of trouble. I also found out today that the little ole lady that was our first landlord down here and gave me a bunch of toys (I was like four) is that former mayor's sister.

EDIT: Did a little bit of looking, and apparently he was Mayor during the time we were renting from her.

EDIT2: Apparently that former mayor is also an actual cuck.

[muon2]

To the OP. One unexpectedly unusual interaction occurred back in 2003. I was in Springfield with a group to lobby the legislature on various issues. We were each assigned a set of legislators to meet. One state senator wasn't in his office, but I found him at a dinner at the Governor's mansion that evening and scheduled a meeting for the next day. None of that was unusual, but 6 years later Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th president. Two years later I was caught by a Reuters camera shaking the hand of George W Bush at a bill signing ceremony in Montgomery IL.

[RINO Tom]

My dad met George W. Bush before he was the Governor of Texas.  He sat and talked with my dad for about ten minutes while he was waiting for someone else at the company.  Said he was super cool.

[Hindsight was 2020]

I can’t believe I’m admitting to this but mid 2017 in the summer, I was at a bar named flats fix with some guys and I struck up a conversation with the cute bartender. After some talking and flirting I managed to talk her to going back to my place. It was just a one night stand and we didn’t exchange numbers but a year later I saw her again...on tv when she was running against Joe Crowley

[Roll Roons]

To the OP. One unexpectedly unusual interaction occurred back in 2003. I was in Springfield with a group to lobby the legislature on various issues. We were each assigned a set of legislators to meet. One state senator wasn't in his office, but I found him at a dinner at the Governor's mansion that evening and scheduled a meeting for the next day. None of that was unusual, but 6 years later Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th president. Two years later I was caught by a Reuters camera shaking the hand of George W Bush at a bill signing ceremony in Montgomery IL.

I'm curious as to what your interactions have been like with Madigan and Blago. I assume you've had plenty of interactions with the former and at least a few with the latter.

[muon2]

To the OP. One unexpectedly unusual interaction occurred back in 2003. I was in Springfield with a group to lobby the legislature on various issues. We were each assigned a set of legislators to meet. One state senator wasn't in his office, but I found him at a dinner at the Governor's mansion that evening and scheduled a meeting for the next day. None of that was unusual, but 6 years later Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th president. Two years later I was caught by a Reuters camera shaking the hand of George W Bush at a bill signing ceremony in Montgomery IL.

I'm curious as to what your interactions have been like with Madigan and Blago. I assume you've had plenty of interactions with the former and at least a few with the latter.

My first meeting with Blago happened to be at the Bush bill signing I referenced above. We happened to arrive at the same time. He was hoping I might lobby one of the GOP state senators on an infrastructure bill. He invited me to the green room for federal officials, and then suggested I take a front row seat. That led to me being in position to shake Bush's hand after the signing.

I had surprisingly few direct interactions with Madigan despite my years of work in Springfield. Most of my interactions with Dem leadership was with House Majority Leader Currie, who I found to be a pleasure to work with. She retired two years ago.